The ‘reading glasses shift’ hit me just in the last couple of years (early 40s). It was brutal. Suddenly I was holding my phone at arm’s length trying to make out text. Now I have to wear reading glasses over my contacts sometimes.
I’m 41 and my eyes are still OK as of today. Really not looking forward to the inevitable which is probably right around the corner.
It hit me at 42, so, uh, good luck?
I’ll really have to enjoy the next couple months, then. :(
Ha, sucker. I got glasses at 9, so nobody will ever know if I need reading glasses.
Check and mate.
55 and no reading glasses :P
(Course I also had cataracts at a ‘young’ age, so there’s that. I could have had my far-sightedness corrected but then I would have needed reading glasses so I took a pass.)
I finally got reading glasses a few months ago just shy of my 48th birthday so me and my eyeballs had a good run. For the last 5 or so years I was well aware that I was seeing on borrowed time. It’s all about the gratitude!
Finally got bifocals at 45.
I had early cataracts as well, but the surgery corrected my eyesight, so no reading glasses for me.
Many people older than me got LASIK but have to wear reading glasses to use the computer. They all encouraged me to get it as well; i say to that why have surgery to rid of glasses (correcting for nearsightedness) when driving when i have to still use glasses 80% of the day still?
Have a former in-law who is a doctor of optometry or something like that. She says that after 40 the eyes change and glasses are inevitable at some point.
I was ok until about 45 or so. Now I wear readers to read anything. I keep multiple pairs from the Dollar Store in my home. I am uncomfortable if I don’t have at least 3-4 pairs of glasses in the house. I like a pair in my car and a couple of pairs at work, too.
Presbyopia. Hardening of the eye’s lens so you can’t focus as closely anymore.
I’m on varifocals now. I avoided them on the visit to opticians before my last because well, varifocals =old people, but went for it on my last visit when constantly lifting my glasssles up read. I’m in contacts for work but home and weekend it’s glasses.
I wore glasses (and later contacts) my entire life, starting in 3rd grade. My eyes were terrible before (as in I could barely make out the big “E” at the top of the eye chart). So in my 30s I got lasik. My wife and I got it around the same time. The results were good for both of us, however she ended up with 20/20 vision. I did too but soon after the lasik my eyes “adjusted” to the point where they’re definitely not 20/20… maybe 20/60 or 20/80? Good but not great. But I believe as a result of that adjustment I haven’t yet had to get reading glasses at age 62 (my wife got them maybe 10 years ago). It’s happening soon but … not quite yet!
Right you are. At 42 I still wear almost the same prescription glasses I got when I was 30. Guess my time for reading glasses ain’t due yet. But how about them guns Huh.
Yep, got my first pair of varifocals at 45 last september (been wearing glasses since 8). Dropped quite a lot of money on nice Ray Ban frames to soften the blow, and the lenses are top end, so you cannot tell at all that they’re varifocal.
This is basically me. It really bothers me when I travel, because you can’t easily keep readers handy when getting through airports, and you can’t see a damned thing you need to without them. I tried monovision for a couple of years — a reader contact in just one eye — and it does work after you get used to it, except at night when driving when it is truly fucking dangerous, but I fell out of the habit of dealing with the lenses on a trip and never went back.
I have several pairs of sunglasses with readers, because I discovered that I can’t operate my camera without them. I don’t need them to see through the viewer, but I do need them to check the settings, etc, and to review the shot afterward to see if it is clear and properly framed.
Same here. I got lasik in my 30s, and now a 47 they are still going strong. I think they maybe have got a bit worse than the 20/20 20/10 I had after surgery, but they are still better than not being able to see anything without glasses like it was before. I should get in and get a check up at some point.
I’m also someone who had LASIK in my 30s. Actually I had a slightly different version, LASEK, because apparently it’s safer for someone with corneal scarring, which I had due to 20 years of contact lens use. My vision prior to the surgery was something like 20/75 in my right eye (not too terrible) but 20/400 in my left eye. I basically couldn’t see a thing out of my left eye, and to this day I’ve no idea why the discrepancy. Every eye doctor always asked me if I’d had an eye injury, but I never have… my left eye was always that much worse than my right.
Anyway, after the surgery I had pretty much 20/20. It degraded a little bit after some time, but I never needed glasses again, apart from a very mild prescription I wear for night time driving. That said, I don’t for a minute regret the money I spent on the surgery.
Now, at 48, my vision mostly gets a bit blurry when my eyes are tired (so later in the evening) but about two years ago my close up vision started getting bad. I can still read things like restaurant menus okay without reading glasses, but try to read text on small bottles is an exercise in frustration, so like many here, I have a cheap pair of throwaway drugstore glasses for when I need them.
Sucks getting old.
I was told at the time by my doctor that any improvement from surgery would have a finite shelf life, and that generally it couldn’t be repeated later with the same result, so I didn’t bother and bought reading glasses. I can’t say those things are true, but it’s what I was told.